Skip to main content

Other Legal Issues

The other legal issues are as below:


Electronic Contracts 

A legally binding contract requires a few basic elements - offer, acceptance, and consideration. However, these requirements are difficult to establish when the contracts are to be entered into electronically. Provisions have therefore been made in the cyberlaw carrying definitions to electronic records, digital signatures and other electronic communications. 


The Information Technology Act provides the means to effectuate transactions accomplished through an electronic medium. The legal components, which enable a contract to come into existence, comprise four contractual components. These contractual components are: 
1) Consideration: The concept of consideration means that each party should derive something beneficial from the transaction; when the parties are in negotiations. 

2) Intention to Create Legal Relations: the second element namely the intention to create legal relations can be conceded - This leaves with the essence of the contract, offer and acceptance.

3) Offer: An offer must not be confused with an invitation to treat. An invitation is an intimation by one party to another that it may be willing to do so business in relation to a particular article on particular terms and that the other party, if interested should make the first party, an offer in relation there to. This distinction is a crucial one. As to acceptance, when does it occur and what are the effects? 

4) Acceptance: The moment of acceptance would generally determine not only the time the contract was entered into but also, if nothing contrary were stated in the terms of the contract, the nationality of the laws that would apply to the contract and the jurisdiction that would be appropriate forum in which any disputes would be adjudicated. This becomes particularly important if the two parties are in different countries with different legal systems. Most contracts avoid the risk by expressly stating the choice of law and jurisdiction.

With the advent of the online world, the law of contract has not altered; rather it had to apply to the existing concepts to a new medium. There are two mainstream ways of concluding a contract online: 

  1. The first one is by way of exchange of e-mails. As long as the e-mail of acceptance does not vary the terms set out in the e-mail of offer, a contract will be concluded by the second e-mail. Further a company, to avoid doubt, should specify in its terms and conditions how, in the event of competing e-mails of acceptance, it will determine which e-mail has been deemed to arrive first.
  2. The other method of concluding an online contract is via a website. In order for a company to run a proper e-commerce operation, it needs to ensure that its terms and conditions are properly accepted to the online environment, the potential clients have a sight of the terms and conditions which will govern the contract before conclusion of the contract and that it construct its site in such a way as clearly to indicate whether the site is an offer capable of acceptance of an invitation to treat which is not. The acceptance will greatly be by way of a click on the word "accept". "Clickwrap" acceptance has now been granted similar status to the offline signature.

To conclude a valid online contract on the legal basis, it should be ensured that the terms and conditions: 
  1. Are clearly displayed on the website or integrated into the exchange of e- mails; 
  2. Have been adapted properly to the online environment- certain changes are necessary to reflect legislation which only applies to online transactions; 
  3. Clearly set out whether the site constitutes an offer or invitation to treat; and 
  4. What will constitute valid acceptance. 

The Information Technology Act, 2000 has introduced certain statutory conditions pertaining to methodology of contracts formed electronically using computer, computer system or computer network and also contracts through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). It highlights crucial aspects of paperless communication leading to formation of contract in real time. The Act grants legal recognition to communication process involving computer, computer system and computer network by identifying attribution, acknowledgement and dispatch of electronic records as key statutory provisions.

Gambling 

One of the fastest growing online businesses is online gambling. The scope of this business is so enormous that some have even claimed, it is the single most important factor in the growth of e-commerce. Despite this, there is much controversy and uncertainty surrounding the legality of online gaming. 

Gambling takes many forms, from the simple scratch card, through betting on various sports events to casino type games (often played for high stakes). All these forms of gambling can be replicated on the web. 

Internet gambling can be dated back to 1995 with the establishment of the first online casino. From that start the industry was has mushroomed with, four years later, over a thousand casino sites online. The way Internet gambling works is other e-commerce site; the customer chooses the service and pays much like with a credit card. Gambling sites can be sophisticated with the facilities of the web used to display the odds, report on the result of the event or simulate the playing of the game.

The gambling supply chain in very simple, the transaction is between the bookmaker or casino and the customer, that applies both online and offline. The supply chain is represented in figure 4.3.



For example, the Blue Square is the interactive division of City Index, a U.K. sports and financial bookmaker. Blue Square are concerned about their credentials; they emphasise that they are based in the City of London and not in some offshore island.

The site covers a wide range of betting; topics include U.K. and international football (soccer to U.S. readers), snooker, NFL, cricket, horse racing, dog racing and even who might be elected to be Mayor of London. Click on U.K. football and odds are given for the current weeks matches, which team might win the league and which player will be the season's top goal scorer. The site matches the sort of bet that could be placed with any licensed high street bookmaker. There are no card games or gaming machines; it is all strictly within the parameters set out in U.K. law. 

The site requires registration before it is used and emphasises that customers must be atleast 18 years old. 

For some, all gambling is immoral but most would agree that a little 'flutter' does no harm – and possibly a little good if the profits go to a good cause.

Gambling has, however, a darker side. Gambling addicts ruin their own lives and, not infrequently, the lives of many other. On the other side of the business there is an issue of criminal involvement. For these reasons there has been considerable effort by governments to use the law to regulate gambling (with some of the most restrictive legislation being in North America). A further area of involvement of the state, in gambling, are the levying of gaming taxes and the support of casino development as a tool of economic development (an involvement that runs somewhat contrary to the social case for the restriction of gambling). 

The use of internet gambling blows apart the regulatory framework and social controls that consist in conventional gambling. Problems include: 
  1. Social controls that might be exerted over a gambler in a betting shop or a casino do not apply online; at the simplest level there is no closing time. 
  2. The gambling facilities can be based in a country with minimal legislative restrictions and from there it is open for business on a worldwide basis (thus circumventing national legal restrictions). 
  3. Offshore gambling circumvents national taxation requirements. 
  4. Any attempt by a state to monitor online gambling activities would raise civil liberty concerns monitoring that is undertaken more difficult. 
  5. The difficulty in regulating online gambling makes it prone to illegal activity. possibly more vulnerable than its conventional counterpart. the use of encryption for transmission makes any

Overall it is difficult to see what can be done about these issues. The problems are compounded by the very different legislative frameworks that operate in different countries. Any attempts that are made to tighten up legal controls in one country may well be evaded by the operator simply moving their activities to another location with a less restrictive regime.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Post

Advantages of EDI

1) Shortened Ordering Time : Paper orders have to be printed, enveloped and sent out by the customer's post room, passed through the postal service, received by the supplier's post room and input to the supplier's order pocessing system. To achieve all this, reliably, in under three days would be to do very well. EDI orders are sent straight into the network and the only delay is how often the supplier retrieves messages from the system. Orders can be in the supplier's system within a day, or if there is urgency, the messages can be retrieved more frequently, for example every hour.  2) Cost Cutting : The use of EDI can cut costs. These include the costs of stationery and postage but these will probably be fully matched by the costs of running the EDI service. The principle saving from the use of the EDI is the potential to save staff costs. For example, if the orders are directly input to the system there is no need for an order entry clerk.  3) Elimination of Errors :...
Post a Comment
Read more

Infrastructure for EC

Introduction The e-commerce infrastructure is defined here as the supporting capabilities for online trading between multiple companies which include hardware, software, networks, online payment technologies, security and encryption technologies, online trading business models, legal and regulatory framework, and managerial and organisation capabilities.  Infrastructure is the shared human, informational , and technical resources on which the work system relies in order to operate, even though these resources exist and are managed outside of the work system.  To evaluate the interdisciplinary aspects of construction e-commerce infrastructure, one proposes using a four pillar approach. Figure 5.1 illustrates the skeleton for the proposed integrated construction e-commerce infrastructure. The proposed integrated e-business infrastructure can be broken down into the following four groups of components:  1) Technological Infrastructure : Technology infrastructure is a work...
1 comment
Read more

Business Strategy - E-Commerce Strategy Inputs

E-Commerce Strategy Inputs Traditionally an IT strategy would be subservient to the business strategy. For e- commerce the IT strategy becomes a central component (or the determinant factor) in business strategy.  Inputs to an e-commerce business strategy are: Technology An E-commerce technology includes:  EDI : Streamline supply logistics and facilitate decreases in trade cycle times.  Electronic Markets : Re-define the operation of a market sector.  Internet E-Commerce : Provides new direct sales opportunities and novel business to business and business to consumer applications.  Internet e-commerce can be used to improve, transform and re-define business value:  Organisation  Source of Business value  i) Improve it a) Product promotion b)New direct sales channel c)Direct saving d)Time to market e)Customer service f)Brand image  ii)Transform it a)Technological and organizational learning b)Customer relations  iii)Re-define it a)New pro...
Post a Comment
Read more